During my senior year of college, I spent so much time researching "Best Colleges in the U.S" or "Best Colleges in California". U.S News rankings came up every time. But think about this for a second, how does one single magazine know so much why Harvard is better than Yale or Yale than Harvard? In perspective, that's like asking one person, "Hey, which is the better school?" and completely trusting that this one person who went to neither school knows the absolute answer.

Turns out U.S News gathers their information through a system of officials, peers, and alumni surveys. Data consisting college retention rates, graduation rates, and SAT and ACT score are also taken into account. But how do you get accurate results with bias? Come one guys, this is basic stats information. Most students and affiliates of the school are going to be biased with their answers. And bias questions credibility. I'm sure there are numerous checks and other systems which are taken to insure that the data is reliable, but do you really want to base all your opinions on people each answering that their own school is the best?

There are so many brilliant people who go to less "prestigious" schools or community colleges. This does not make them any less achieving than others.

Of course that there are schools more rigorous in pace than others. But pure academia and research money does not define if a UC is better than a state. I know that the rigorous pace of an Ivy League would definitely not be the best school for me. Personally, I would have gotten swamped and dropped out. Perhaps I wouldn't have, perhaps I would make it. But really, what more would I be learning? How can you define in numbers the worth of one person's knowledge over the other's? Knowledge is only useful with fitting experience.

I am comfortable here at SDSU. I chose this school and my experience will be what I make of it. A degree is a degree, and whether your school was ranked #1 or #500 has nothing to do with it.

Congratulations on deciding to continue your education and entering college. It's going to be a wild ride.